The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Public wireless broadband network access is becoming widely available at retail merchants such as coffeehouses, restaurants, and bookstores, among others. In some cases such merchants provide network access in conjunction with the purchase of a product. Thus, these merchants find that providing network access serves as an incentive to customers to patronize such merchants rather than other merchants who do not provide network access. Merchants who provide network access also find that providing network access serves as an incentive to customers to purchase the merchant's goods and services.
However, these merchants generally earn profits from selling conventional goods and services, not from selling network access. If a customer purchases one cup of coffee for a nominal amount and then occupies a table for several hours while using the internet, the merchant suffers by having one customer occupy the table for too long, depriving other 50325-0853 (Seq. No. 7840) customers of space in the establishment and the incentive to purchase goods or services. The merchant also suffers by granting network access having a value far greater than the product that was purchased. Thus, there is a need for merchants to have a way to control network access to prevent abuse by such customers.
Such merchants also typically employ individuals who are skilled at customer service and the merchant's particular products and services, but not skilled in computers, network access, computer configuration, and related technical issues. Therefore, there is also a need to have a very simple access control mechanism, so that the merchant's retail sales employees are not required to help customer solve network access problems.
The use of technically “heavyweight” security solutions such as LEAP, for authenticating wireless devices that are allowed to use LANs hosted by a merchant, is known in this context.
Other such systems require the system to have personal knowledge of the customer who is being provided network access or through receiving personal information (e.g., credit card number) or through establishing a pre-existing account with a particular service provider. This option is generally not acceptable for customers who travel frequently, and merely need to send or receive email. Similarly, this option is unattractive for customers who prefer to keep their personal information confidential irrespective of the number of visits to a particular franchise.
Merchants are often wary of situations in which they do not have control over the equipment that is installed at a merchant location. This can happen, for instance, when a service provider provides network access equipment at a merchant location, but the equipment is owned and maintained by the service provider. As a result, the merchant does not have control over the network services provided by that equipment, and this can cause problems under certain circumstances. For example, the merchant may wish to provide free network access time to a valued customer, or if the customer lost network access time due to circumstances outside the control of the customer. If the equipment is owned by a third party service provider, then the merchant may be unable to provide special services to its customers in these cases. In addition, the merchant is typically required to sign a contract with the service provider, preventing the merchant from removing the equipment prior to a specific date even when adverse circumstances occur, such as abuse of network access privileges by customers).
Cisco Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. has previously developed certain solutions for prepaid access to mobile wireless services. In these solutions a customer uses a credit card account or debit card account to prepay for services such as games, email, etc. that are accessed through a mobile phone. Payment is provided by making a separate secure Web connection, selecting from a menu, and providing a credit card account number. However, these solutions are not well integrated into the retail merchant sales process.
Frequent buyer cards and other merchant loyalty programs, not related to network access or computer use, are also known.
Further, in certain approaches, scratch cards containing authorization codes are used. However, many small businesses cannot absorb the costs of printing or using scratch cards.
In view of the above, there is a need for a way to control network access provided to customers that enables merchants to better control the network access that is provided.